I don't really know what this is.
It's something I started awhile ago and realized wasn't going anywhere.
So I figured I'd just submit it and see what happens.
-
I am Tsunade.
My body is aching, and I feel the adrenaline fading. I feel like I'm going to die, before I can the murder the man who wishes to destroy my home.
The muscles twitch, wrench themselves, and it feels like they being tied in knots.
My clothes are dirty, my hair tangled and sticking to my hot, sweaty self, and my throat raspy and dry from my constant gasping for air and screams to him that he is dead and I have already won this battle.
My lungs are uninflated, limp and overworn. It's like I am an old woman.
You've gotta be kidding me.
The muscles in my arm spasms, and the stomach-twisting pain shoots through me.
Am I going to vomit?
I force it down, and can feel a look of disgust carve itself on my features.
Orochimaru... the greedy bastard. I know he's never had suffering in his life. He doesn't know... he doesn't know what it's like to want something for someone else, to fight for something other than your own greedy wishes.
My ex-friend, ex-teammate, ex-everything. He is nothing to me- an opponent not worthy of a true fight, perhaps.
You betrayed your friends, your teammates, your village, your... no, OUR sensei, hell, you murdered him! Now you want to destroy OUR village.
You... you... you bastard! I hate you. I hate you more than I could ever say.
I've gotta keep hitting him. If I stop, if I ever stop, he'll get his wind and he'll avoid my blows, and I will lose and he will murder everyone in our village.
I can't let that happen.
I am the Godaime, the powerful protector of the beautiful village the Leaf.
Nobody...
Nobody tries to take out my village!
- -
I am Rock Lee
They laugh. They scoff.
They think I can't hear them... but I can. I hate them for it- how dare they think so little of me, how dare they make assumptions about my ability. They know NOTHING.
He stands there, waiting impatiently but calmly, arms crossed like he's already decided I'm not worth his time.
He has already decided he will win. He has decided to smash my dreams and all my hopes as efficiently and to his liking as possible.
I have news for this brat from the sand.
I am the gorgeous green beast of Konoha. I have one up there I care for deeply- she will not see my defeat. If I am going to lose, then I will be dead, because I have already decided that if I get knocked down, I am going to get up and drag myself back into the fight. I will not be shown up, not after all my training, all my devotion, and all my work.
Quit smirking at me, you raccoon. Your eyes are half-closed and you look so bored- I will wake you from your nap.
Eyes open, chin up. I will make you clench that idle fist of yours.
I will make your heart begin beating again.
I will give you the fight of your life, Sabaku no Gaara!
You better watch your back. I will fight you and I will win.
You don't know... you don't know what it's like to be called a loser, or be talked about as a worthless being in existence.
You don't know what it's like to want something so bad, you would kill for it.
- -
I am Hyuuga Hinata.
Every fear I have is confronting me now.
My cousin, the cousin I have been told to despise because he was born to the wrong Hyuuga brother, is gazing at me with eyes of hatred.
I can feel it- they are burning holes through me. All these years of abuse he has received, every moment of it, is being channeled into a consuming rage.
He is going to make me pay. Everything the head family has done is now my fault, and I am going to bleed, and it is going to hurt.
Our moves are quick, agile, practiced.
My arm smacks his, then our wrists sharply meet. Like any battle, it is harsh and rough.
Like acid, the blood burns through my throat and explodes from my mouth. If I could, I would scream, cry, or run... perhaps a combination of all three.
Every instinct is to save myself. I should go as fast as I can, run, as far away as I can, and hide, hide from the eyes that can see all.
I need a rescuer.
Please help me, somebody, anybody. If that domanatrix woman of the sand were to whirl a blazing roar of her husky winds to me, I would be appreciative, or even the brooding Uchiha boy.
Please.
A scream reaches me, one full of anger and frustration. It is not my own.
"Fight back, dammit!" he roars, his clenched fist held so tightly that I can see the tendons twitching, stretched over the calloused joints.
Naruto's right, I know he is. No one helped him then. No one will help me now.
I will fight. And I will do my best!
---
Weakling from this nation of leaves, I will show you how we remove the impurities from our armies in the sand.
It's her own bad luck, having me for an opponent. I am the only daughter and eldest child of the prestigous Kage of our endless homeland.
Since the day of birth, it has been repeated to me, over and over.
I cannot lose. Ever. To be defeated, by anyone, whether my elder or a youth, is a disgrace, and disgrace to one shinobi is disgrace to an entire nation.
As the only woman ever to be granted a place in the government of the sand, I have a lot to hold up.
You may be the adorable, pig-tailed little ninja girl here, tougher than these other weaklings, but compared to me, you are nothing.
I am Temari.
Since I was a baby, my lifestyle has been hard and rough and devoid of that useless affection. It serves no purpose other than mindless luxury for weaklings; and I am by no means a weakling.
I will beat you.
And I will enjoy it.